Monday Morning at the Fair

Being a lazy Master Gardener, I figured I would do my annual State Fair booth sitting stint first thing Monday. Surely that would be the slowest time of the week.

I reckoned without the school field trips. The Agriculture building was aswarm with short people - all on a mission.

The Ag Building tries to represent the whole state. Around the inside perimeter of the building are booths for each county's Ag/PR display, a refrigerator case for the butter cow, and Bart.

The grade school kids show up at the Ag Building in classroom groups with their scavenger hunt papers in hand. What is the theme of this year's State Fair? (Fill Up On Fun!) What is Juab County's primary agricultural product? (alfalfa) Where is Davis County and what does its booth feature this year? (north of Salt Lake City on the east side of the Great Salt Lake, the Ogden Balloon Festival) How many pounds of butter did it take to make the butter cow? (Do people eat it after the fair? Ewww!)

I don't know how many pounds of butter went into the butter cow this year, but I do know that nobody eats it afterwards. They freeze it and use it again next year. Or so I've been told. So I sincerely hope.

The first year I womaned the Master Gardener booth at the fair, the butter cow was shown knocking over a butter Bart and his butter pail.

Bart is one of Salt Lake County's founding Master Gardeners. I suspect he's run the State Fair Ag Building since before dirt was invented. He was wearing his standard uniform today: overalls, plaid shirt, red baseball cap and a toothpick in the corner of his mouth. The only times I've seen him out of full uniform are Christmases, when he swaps the ball cap for a Santa hat.

His desk is at the back of the building by the water fountains and the women's room, convenient for answering school kids' questions and flirting with the ladies.


And Bart is a ladies' man, he gets all the cute girls.